Chocolate Walnut and Zucchini Brownie

This delicious ooey-gooey chocolate brownie is an absolute hit with kids and adults alike! Perfect for morning or afternoon tea with a cuppa. It has zucchini which is a. a vegetable and b. makes it lovely and moist. It’s gluten free and is a source of protein with almond meal and eggs. The recipe calls for rapadura sugar which gives a lovely caramel flavour. It contains it’s natural minerals as the sugar is not separated from the molasses (like with refined sugars). This recipe is from my nutritionist friend Beck from Big Bowl of Happy.

My kids absolutely love making this…and my son is not a fan of zucchini #parentingwin

Ingredients

• ½ cup butter or coconut oil (melted)
• ½ cup almond meal (or plain, spelt or gluten free flour)
• ½ cup cocoa powder (¼ cup rich dutch process cocoa and ¼ cup normal) or raw cacao powder
• ¾ cup rapadura or coconut sugar
• 3 eggs or 3 ‘chia eggs’(see notes)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon bicarb soda
• 1 small zucchini grated and juice squeezed out
• ½ cup whole walnuts
• 100g of quality dark cooking chocolate chopped into chunks
• pinch good quality mineral salt

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Grease and line a slice tin with baking paper. Approximately 22cm squared or smaller.
3. Mix all the ingredients together in a mixing bowl with a wooden spoon except walnuts, and pour into tin.
4. Press the walnuts evenly into the mixture so they are sort of half submerged.
5. Bake in the oven for 25-28mins. You want it kind of gooey.
6. Leave to rest and cool, serving slightly warm

Notes: You can double the recipe if you want a higher brownie but you will need to cook it for an extra 10-15 minutes. It is ready when a skewer some out clean.

You can substitute eggs with ‘Chia Eggs’. One chia egg equals x 1 tablespoon chia seeds, plus 3 tablespoons water. This is equivalent to one chicken egg. Stir and let sit for about 15-20 minutes until it forms a gel consistency. This recipe calls for three eggs so that’s 3 tablespoons chia seeds plus 9 tablespoons water. If you are using chia eggs, the volume of the overall batter will be slightly smaller so be sure to use a smaller tray, something around 15cm squared would suit well.

Lauren Burns is the Niño ELA Nutritional Ambassador, an Olympic gold medallist and a leading nutritionist who shares our passion for building healthy eating habits for life.

Learn more about Niño ELA’s nutrition program